Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/51

41 Louisiana, and the greater part of the territories, of which the United States have possessed themselves, are susceptible of every species of culture, and adapted to the production not only of all the crops which are raised in the richest lands of the Union, but of many of those of Europe also, and almost all those of our Americas. The French, driven from St. Domingo when the negroes became independent in that part of the island which France possessed, and expelled afterwards from the island of Cuba, sought refuge in the United States; and it is from them, the Anglo-Americans have learned the method of cultivating cotton, sugar, and other colonial produce. Since that time, various plantations have been made in Louisiana and in some other of the places mentioned.

In consequence of the general peace in Europe, and the obstacles which it threw in the way of the mercantile speculations of these States, the cultivation of the establishments in Upper and Lower Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, Tombigbee, and other places, has been considerably promoted; and the enterprises of labourers, speculators and adventurers continue in these places, which they prefer on account of the topographical situation of the country, the fineness of the climate, and the fertility of the land. Their progress, however, has not corresponded hitherto, with the flattering hopes which these people had conceived. The 6